Late in 2020, I went back through The Toys That Made Us series on Netflix and the Star Trek episode took some time to really dig into the history of Mego. Many of the toys I played with growing up or have collected are technically before my time but Mego was WAY before my time. I always kind of had a general idea of the toys, mainly thanks to Robot Chicken, but something about the presentation of the episode really gave me an itch to try this type of toyline out.
I decided to get just one figure, to try it out. If I didn't like them, no big deal, not a lot of time/money wasted. My favorite superhero is Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern/Ion) and I remembered that Matty Collector had a Mego-like brand for a few years. A google search later and I found a Kyle Rayner figure for $10! Perfect. I could hardly ask for a better price for making a trial run. A week later, the figure arrived and I loved it. They had an entire sub series of GL's that I bought and some other items but that is for a different blog. However, this was my entry into Megoish figures.
I decided to go back into Mego to find a Batman. This was pretty tricky because I wanted to find a Batman that would be my 'definitive' version of the character. For me, Batman exists somewhere between the way he was reimagined by Dennis O'neal and Neal Adams, the Filmation Cartoon, and the 1966 Batman series. Specifically, the Batman we see in the Jose Luis Garcia Lopez style guide.
Looking around at choices of Batman, the answer was pretty tricky. Mego, recently returned, has produced a Batman, but it reflects the modern style.
Figures Toy Company produced a few Batmans. They remade the original Mego Batman and produced versions for the Superfriends, the New Adventures of Batman, the 1966 Batman, and even their take on the Neal Adams Batman.
None of these really called to me. The closest had to be the Neal Adams inspired FTC figure but it still didn't really resonate. Then I remembered the DC Retro Action line from Matty Collector. This was exactly the figure I wanted but the first run of this line had floppy waists and the rest of the run had slightly floppy legs. Then I also remembered that ClassicTVToys.com was selling a new S Type body. The body used actual plastic articulation joints instead of bands. I decided to buy Batman and the S Type body. If I couldn't get the Mattel body to work, I could just throw it all on the S Type body.
As soon as Batman arrived, I popped him apart and rebanded him. It worked, and he was not longer floppy! However, the S Typy body had also arrived and it offered better points of articulation.
The Mattel body had way better muscle definition but the S type offered bicep swivel. I went with the S Type. I ended up giving the rebanded body to my Kyle Rayner, who is happy to no longer have floppy legs.
Judge for yourselves if I made the right decision.
You can find the DC Retro Action Batman on Ebay in the $20 price range.
You can buy the S Type body from Classic TV Toys
Look for some more 8" figure posts from me soon!
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